Changing the 'Go-home' altitude

[rrmccabe]

If you mean that you've reset the home position while the bird is airborne, it will proceed to a point 20m above the new home point, pause and then start to descend. It will continue to descend until it feels the ground under its feet (however far down that is) at whatever descent speed your firmware allows (slow).

I understand the part on how to reset it.

The question is what happens to the speed. Normally it descends at 4.5 mph (in my case) and slows down when it gets close to the ground.

If it thinks the ground is further up (because you tricked it into thinking the ground was X amount of feet higher), does it descend at 4.5 mph to that point and start to slow down and then continue really slow from there?

Probably be easier for me just to test it myself. Hard to explain.

 

[IrishSights]

It just lands as normal. My practice is to swtich it from gps to atti and back to gps to get control back and then catch land as I always do. In my earlier days I had to many bouncy landings and near tip overs so I always catch land. Scary the first time but becomes 2nd nature.
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[Alib]

when you reset the home position in the air, it doesnt reset the height reading to zero.. the zero height reading is still from when you turned the phantom on.

 

[WebMaximus]

In china everything is backwards :lol:

:lol: Maybe you're right but isn't DJI in fact a Japanese company?

 

[happydays]

In china everything is backwards :lol:

:lol: Maybe you're right but isn't DJI in fact a Japanese company?

Erm, no.

 

[WebMaximus]

Thought I read that somewhere but I'm not surprised, guess most stuff is made in China these days

 

[smokiespliff]

There was discussion about this in another thread. I tried resetting the home point when it was 15m up in the air, then triggered RTH. It just flew straight down, and not up to 35m and then down as I assumed. However, this is a stock Phantom with whatever firmware it came with and still in phantom mode. I haven't had time to test otherwise.

 

[rrmccabe]

Tried it this am. It worked fine. As noted above the altimiter is still correct so the bird is smart enough to figure out this is not same as setting home on the ground and does not reset height. So appears the speed and landing is all the same.

Note on speed. When I initiated RTH it went up at 1mph and returned and descended at 1mph. I had reset home at 50' in the air. I tried it again resetting at 100' and it raised at 1mph but descended at 2-3mph to start and last 75 feet (don't know exact) slowed to 1mph. Landing was textbook.

 

[WebMaximus]

Thanks for testing and reporting back, will try this myself.

This is a great work-around until/if they include an option in the software to set the height.

 

[Bobnfla]

OK I am new to this Phantom 2 Vision + Stuff. I have been flying Heli's for quite some time along with Quads. Now I have just bought a Phantom and love what it does. Took it out today for a little training session. Training on my part that is. Tried the Flipping of the S2 to reset the Home Altitude.Now I flipped the switch at an altitude of 150 ft. All went well Flipped the switch got the fast blinking green lites then went to slower blinking. All is good. Flew it out to 500' and brought it down to an altitude of 83-85 and hit return to home. Now I was thinking that the Quad would go to 150 plus the 20M then return Home. But it stayed at the 85+/_ and returned home. I was under the impression that after you re-set the Altitude that it would go back to that altitude plus the 20M and return Home. Or is it that the Quad was already above the 60M point and figured that it was good to go. I fly where there are a lot of trees. I try to pre-plan for a RTH so to avoid the trees.Did I do something wrong or is it just the way it is.What I want to do is fly it up and over the trees. Look at things at a lower altitude and know that if I lose signal or run low on battery that when it goes to RTH that it goes to the higher altitude and then RTH.

 

[rrmccabe]

It will fly back at current elevation if higher than the setpoint + 20meter. But if lower it will raise to the setpoint +20 meters.

Question for the more knowledgeable. Wondering if NAZA-M needs to be enabled with the IOC to work. Its my understanding S2 does nothing until you enable it.

 

[Bobnfla]

rrmccabe,that is what I was thinking. I thought that it would raise to the 150' plus the 20M and come home. But it stayed at the current altitude and came home.

 

[rrmccabe]

Question are you running naza mode with ioc checked? Mine does work. Hope someone chimes in to let use know if the ioc switch toggle will reset without ioc enabled.

 

[WebMaximus]

I'm very new to all this as well but I'm pretty sure to have IOC functionality on the S2 switch you need to be in Naza mode and you need to tick that option under the Advanced tab in the Assistance software.

As for resetting the home point up in the air after what I've been reading the P2V+ should RTH at whatever altitude you resetted the home point plus 20 meters so weird why that didn't work out here.

I wonder if it's dependant on what mode you're in, Phantom 2 or Naza?

Will test this myself hopefully tomorrow and I'm now in Naza mode using the latest firmware and versions.

 

[Bobnfla]

OK this is what I did. Both switches were at the top position. Launched the Quad. took it to 150ft. Toggled S2 5+ times. Got the fast Flashing Green Lites. Then it went to sllow flashing Green lites. Lower altitude to 85' and went away 500' then hit come home. It did not go up as I thought it would. It stayed at 85'. Why?

 

[WebMaximus]

That's a good question, it should have climbed to 150+ 66 feet from what I've learned.

Will report back what happens for me when I perform the same test.

 

[WebMaximus]

Took the Phantom out for a short flight today and thought I would try this but no matter how I flipped S2 between the middle and lower position I couldn't get the fast green flashing indicating a new home point has been set.

Managed to do this just fine before when I was in Phantom mode rather than Naza mode but the procedure should be the same right?

 

[rrmccabe]

When you switched to NAZA want to confirm you checked the IOC option. Might have missed that above.
I dont know if it matters but think you should check it and try.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Coupla' things:

Resetting the home point SHOULD work in either Phantom mode or NAZA. RTH has nothing to do with IOC. Resetting the home point is prrtty much the sole use of S2 in Phantom mode. However, resetting the home point was introduced in a later version of firmware. So if it is not working for you, check your firmware version.

When RTH is activated, the Phantom will rise to 20m or 60' above the altitude of the home point (whether that is the initial home point at the pad, or a home point that you've reset). If it already ABOVE that height, it will maintain its current height until it reaches the position directly above the home point and begins to descend.

There may be older versions of firmware that make the Phantom descend to RTH height (I'm pretty sure I remember it doing that on a very early test... but have since updated several times, and it no longer behaves this way). So, again, be sure you are on the latest firmware.

 

[WebMaximus]

Just did another test and this time I was successful resetting the home point. I learned what is important is to flip the switch in the right pase and not too many times. In fact when I succeeded I flipped the switch exactly 5 times.

I also tried IOC and it worked really good.

Was not in a good location to test if setting a new home location at a certain altitude will make the Phantom climb to that altitude plus the default 66 feet but will test that as well as soon as I have the opportunity.

The only issue for me right now is I found the Phantom will quite easily flip over after touchdown if the surface isn't perfectly flat. I do think the "landing gear" could have been designed better making the Phantom less sensitive when the surface isn't perfectly flat. I've digged up some ground with the propellers twice due to this but luckily the propellers are still intact and after this I've also learned to quickly shut the engines down as soon as I touched down. Maybe I'll get myself some kind of helipad

Lots of things to learn and some of them the hard way I'm afraid but the amount of fun I have exceeds the few concerns so far big time!

Edited to add I'm already using the latest firmware and software versions but thanks anyway for the tip.